HaloIPT Wirelessly Charges your Rolls-Royce?

We covered the HaloIPT system last fall. If you weren't clicking links, it's a wireless battery charging system for electric vehicles. Just park over the induction pad and the system will charge the batteries on your electric vehicle. This is the same kind of technology like you're seeing in the Energizer Qi and a host of other inductive charging mats for your wireless devices. Rolls-Royce recently unveiled the 102ex Phantom experimental electric vehicle at the Geneva Auto Show and it apparently comes with the HaloIPT. Rolls plans to use the car to start a debate on whether or not full-electric vehicles are the future of luxury automotive.

The Rolls-Royce 102ex looks just like the rest of the Phantom line, but it's guts contain two powerful, water cooled electric motors and a massive li-ion battery where the V12 engine and gearbox would otherwise be. Most electric vehicles use a charging system that plugs into a port placed similarly to the gas tanks on internal combustion engines. Rolls is going with HaloIPT. Seamless, wireless, simple, elegant, what else do you expect? Ben Rooney over at the Wall Street Journal reported this a little earlier today. He sourced Nigel Wonnacott, Product PR Manager at Rolls-Royce. The imagery that Rolls has provided otherwise show a charging cable hanging out of the rear of the car. I wonder if this isn't a last-minute retrofit. Most of the inductive charging systems I've seen so far are a snap-on kit or dongle that hangs off of the bottom of your device. I bet that the HaloIPT is similarly simple to install onto any electric vehicle. Of course it's not going to be as easy as adding a case to your iPod, but it'll be easy enough.

Rolls-Royce will be taking the Phantom 102ex to current owners to get feedback on the design. They plan to allow the current customers to help guide the brand into the future. They are going to be taking the car to current owners to get their perspective on the future of Rolls-Royce and electric vehicles. The CEO, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, says that the brand "stands for effortless, silent, and powerful motoring." With two water-cooled electric motors in the drive-train and a charging system that's as easy as driving into your garage. I think they would be crazy not to go with electric.